NHL Game of the Week

Starting this season, NBC aired these Game of the Week games on a national basis, in addition to carrying the national broadcasts of the Winter Classic every First day of the year and the Stanley Cup Playoffs during the Spring.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a overall five network TV apperances during this season, making it the first NHL team in Pennsyvania and the first NHL team to have overall five network apperances in a regular season.

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[4] NBC was supposed to air the Pittsburgh-Washington match-up on January 24, but however, the game was postponed due to hazardous weather, so the network instead selecting St. Louis-Chicago game as their match-up and it aired in the Primetime slot.

During the season, NBC's Star Sunday concept was added to the Game of the Week package.[5] The first game under the new brand took place on January 22, 2017 in a game between the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings.[1]

(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.

During this season, the Philadelphia Flyers had a overall five network TV apperances, making it the final NHL team in Pennsyvania and the second NHL team to have overall five network apperances (the first was Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011–12 season).[6] NBC initially announced that no NHL games would be aired on the network during the 2018 Winter Olympics, however they changed course and added three Sunday afternoon games in February as a lead-in to the Winter Olympics, allowing Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk to stay home and call 3 NHL games.[7] NBC correctly switched the final minutes of the 2018 NHL Stadium Series to its sister network NBCSN (except for viewers in the Washington D.C. market) at 11 p.m. eastern time due to the power outage delay.[8] Star Sunday returned on March 11, 2018, both as part of the Game of the Week and Sunday Night Hockey package.

(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.

[9] For the first time, NBC selected two regional games which to aired it in primetime on February 2, 2019. Star Sunday returned on February 3, 2019, both as part of the Game of the Week and Sunday Night Hockey package. This will mark the first season of Star Sunday to have its presenting sponsor; AT&T was the first presenting sponsor and they branded themselves as Star Sunday presented by AT&T.

(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.

Beginning with this season, Brian Boucher replaced Pierre McGuire on the lead broadcast team with Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk. McGuire would be reassigned to work with NBC's other broadcast teams. the Pittsburgh Penguins had originally did six network television appearances during that season (for the first time since the 2011–12 season), but however due to the cancellation of the final two network TV appearances because of the coronavirus pandemic, they reduced to four.[10][11] NBC supposed to air the two remaining games including the Washington-Pittsburgh match-up on March 22 and the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia match-up on March 29, but however, the games are postponed due to the pandemic, in which the rest of the regular season was paused indefinitely (later cancelled on May 26) due to the pandemic.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the 2020–21 NHL season has been delayed to January 13, 2021, and all teams will play a 56-game division-only schedule with the NHL temporairally realigning divisions to minimize travel as much as possible, with all seven Canadian teams playing one division due to COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada.

NBC Sports will broadcast 16 NHL regular season games, which is the most ever NHL regular season games broadcast on NBC. The NHL on NBC schedule will feature a number of rivalries, including the Capitals–Penguins rivalry, the Blackhawks–Red Wings rivalry, the Bruins-Rangers rivalry, and the Avalanche-Blues rivalry. Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals had five network television appearances this season, the third NHL team to have largest appearances during the regular season. The final NHL on NBC game scheduled for May 8, 2021, is TBD and will feature the most compelling matchup with layoff implications.[12]